UPDATE: Experts say building dams and diversion channels not the best way to deal with floods

Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald05.06.2014

Scientists and conservationists would like to see more focus on natural solutions to floods and droughts, suggesting the proposed McLean Creek dry dam could further degrade a sensitive headwaters area. Rendering courtesy Government of Alberta

Scientists and conservationists say the province needs to put more focus on avoiding floods rather than spending millions on infrastructure that could further damage the landscape and increase the future risk of both floods and droughts.

On Thursday evening, University of Saskatchewan hydrologists Paul Whitfield and John Pomeroy gave a presentation at the Whyte Museum in Banff on the science behind the 2013 flood.

“Alberta needs to rely much more on avoidance,” Pomeroy said in an interview Friday.

His comments came a few days after the province said it would spend $625 million in the next three years on flood mitigation infrastructure — including a dry dam on the Elbow River at McLean Creek, an off-stream storage site near Springbank and a diversion channel around High River. A proposed tunnel in Calgary that would divert some of the Elbow River’s flow under 58th Avenue from the Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River is still being studied.

However, Pomeroy said they should be looking at land-use planning and extending floodplains rather than building structures to withstand a flood similar to the one in June 2013.

“This talk about a one-in-one-hundred-year flood plain is dangerous because we can’t estimate it very well,” he explained. “What we might think is a one-in-hundred-year floodplain would in fact be a one-in-forty-year floodplain.

“In the lifetime of someone’s occupancy of a house, more likely than not you would see a flood. That’s not reasonable.”

Pomeroy and others suggested the province still needs to make some tough decisions about homes in flood plains and look at natural solutions — similar to a recent report by WaterSmart that showed relocation of property and restoration of natural river systems are the most cost effective options.

The province has paid out more than $42 million to relocate dozens of homeowners away from the flood plain, though has said it won’t expropriate those who rejected the offer last year.

It has also set aside $21 million for “natural non-structural solutions” such as maintaining wetlands and healthy riparian areas.“These kinds of projects are important because a healthy watershed is our first and often our best line of defence against both flood and drought,” Environment Minister Robin Campbell said last week. “The effectiveness of local mitigation projects is affected by conditions upstream.“It is important that we have a healthy situation in our headwaters because it adds to the effectiveness of mitigation strategies close to home rather than headwater conditions that are working against us and increasing the risk.”

Conservationists said last week the province needs to put more money and more focus on those natural solutions.

“Budgets speak louder than words, and the Alberta government’s valuing of watershed ecology appears to be only symbolic,” said Carolyn Campbell, conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association. “It is relying almost entirely on activities that reduce natural flood and drought resiliency and watershed health, while facilitating ongoing construction in floodplains.”The association said the proposed dry dam at McLean Creek on the upper Elbow is particularly concerning, noting it will further degrade a sensitive headwaters area.Other proposed dry dams have been taken off the table by the province.Karsten Heuer, president of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, said the dam at McLean Creek would only provide 26 hours of relief from a flood the same size as the one in June 2013, while the storage site would provide 31 hours of relief.“You are averting a flood by two days for hundreds of millions of dollars and it really isn’t getting at the root of the problem,” he said. Heuer said the province should look at protecting more of the forested landscape in the headwaters through its land-use planning process.“We’re still tearing out trees,” he said. “Those trees left standing could act as straws for us and are probably a whole lot more valuable standing than they are on a logging truck.“The problem is across a much wider landscape. It should be a wake-up call that we have a whole new paradigm about how we treat our headwaters.”Biologist Kevin Van Tighem has also suggested dams won’t fix the province’s headwaters, noting floods come from landscapes that have been damaged by decades of forestry and off-road vehicle use.Last week, he said it’s good news the province is recognizing the importance of restoring landscape health and made a tangible commitment to it.“A money amount may be great news, if they plan to spend it wisely, or not enough if they are just throwing money at a problem,” said Van Tighem, noting more details are needed. “Something as simple as instituting a prohibition on the trapping of beavers west of Highway 2 would cost no money at all, after all, and yet deliver marked improvements in headwaters health over time.”The province said more details on natural solutions — particularly related to wetland restoration — will be released later this spring.cderworiz@calgaryherald.com

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UPDATE: Experts say building dams and diversion channels not the best way to deal with floods

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